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Topic: Ovenless biscuit question (Read 4584 times)

I have no oven where I live. All the other parts of the kitchen are normal, but there is nothing approximating an oven.

I also enjoy making biscuits, and haven't managed it satisfactorily in a microwave. I'm worried about trying it in a frying pan on the stove in case it ruins something.

Can this be done with normal biscuit batter? What about the cooking time? I'm planning on just waiting until they look about right, but what should I expect--5 minutes or half an hour? Do I need to flip them like pancakes?

Google gives me very mixed results, so I thought I'd find out if anyone here has done this. Thanks to anyone who has experience they're willing to share!

I believe you could make them in a cast iron skillet. Cast iron usually works well for stovetop-cooking things that are traditionally done in the oven. If you google "cast iron biscuits" there are tons of recipes.

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"From a procrastination standpoint, today has been wildly successful."

I'm assuming when you say biscuits, you mean sweet, flat dough based things? Not the 'biscuits and gravy' sort of biscuits served in the US South with savory dishes?

Either way, honestly, I'd look into a large toaster oven - but with sweet (US cookies) there are lots of no-bake options. Savory ones don't do so well without prolonged, indirect heat - you might look into campfire cookery for some alternate methods, as that's the closest thing I can think of. Sorry I can't give you a straight answer.

I agree with looking at outdoor cooking ideas. I have an Outback Oven that lets me bake on a camping stove. My brother uses a cast aluminum dutch oven on little legs and bakes in that on trips, using wood fire on the lid. That's not going to work so well in your kitchen, though.

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After cleaning out my Dad's house, I have this advice: If you haven't used it in a year, throw it out!!!!.

For biscuits - the tricky part with a frying pan is that the heat is much more direct and much more intense than that in an oven, so it's easy to burn things, or for the outside to be crispy while the inside is still raw.

If you're talking biscuits in the butter cut into the flour, baking powder raised, eat with gravy or butter style, look for Welsh cake recipes, which are intended to be cooked on a griddle. You need to make fairly thin biscuits here, and I think a heavy iron frying pan is essential.

If you're talking cookies (creaming butter and sugar, sweet), then I would only try it with a dough that was fairly stiff and needed to be rolled out fairly thinly, rather than stickier dough that's dropped onto the pan. The stickier doughs I think would be a real mess, and would melt, burn and stick to the pan. For the firmer doughs, I'd try a heavy pan and not too high heat, and you may need some butter or oil to keep it from sticking.

"The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American," pages 158-59, has a brown bread recipe that you cook in a coffee can in a pot of boiling water. On pages 437-38, there's a recipe for "Skillet Bread," made in a cast iron skillet (baked in an oven unfortunately). The guy may have been a sleaze, but the food is still good.

I remember my mother making Bisquick biscuits in her cast iron skillet on the stove. She would cook them like small, thick pancakes. She used lower heat and covered the pan between flipping.

Thanks for all the replies. Sorry, I should have specified: by "biscuit", I mean the British sweet snack which is called a "cookie" in the USA. Not a scone/muffin. So I don't think a toaster would work

I have a really awesome skillet (cast iron and marble), so I'll give it a go with that. I don't want to buy a whole new piece of equipment just for biscuits--I'd rather use what I have if possible. I hate clutter and owning more than I have to.

When I look for recipes using skillets/frying pans, the comments online are a little worrying. Although you get a few nay-sayers for any recipe, the proportion is larger than expected for skillet biscuits, so I'm still a little nervous. I'd hate to ruin my incredible skillet. Although I'm pretty sure I couldn't damage it even if I tried, it's that sturdy.